S3 "Sleeker, stunning"

PC Advisor’s Chris Martin got hands on experience of the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Galaxy S3 at the London event. He found the S3 “comfortable to hold, partly because Samsung has reduced the bezel size keeping the dimensions down as much as possible.”

PC Advisor also loved the phone’s microSD card slot and the new improved version of TouchWiz – “much better than previous versions with a sleeker and more modern look”.

His “one small quibble with the design other than the physical home button is the somewhat plasticy feel and flimsy removable rear cover - a bit of a let down for such a 'premium' smartphone.”

Martin loved the Galaxy S III's large screen: “The Galaxy S3 screen is stunning and comparable in quality to the one found on the HTC One X. It has a Retina quality where individual pixels are not distinguishable.”

S3 "iPhone killer"

The BBC sent its Business Editor Tim Webber to the Samsung launch event. And he certainly thinks the new Android phone is the business. He believes that Samsung has landed a painful blow on iPhone maker Apple.

“With the new Galaxy S3 Samsung has clearly managed to move to the front of the smartphone field, ahead of mighty Apple itself,” he wrote.

S3 "Radically innovative"

The Telegraph newspaper’s Matt Warman said of the new Android phone: “Like the iPhone 4S after the 4, it offers iterative improvements over its predecessor, but the total effect is to create a radically innovative new device.”

Warman liked the new eye-tracking sensor, which “seemed to work very well, with a little icon indicating the phone is watching your eyes.”

However, he hinted that he thought the screen was almost too big for a phone.

“On spending just a short time with the S3, I’m confident in saying that it’s a worthy successor to the globally popular S2”, he said.

S3 "Another best seller"

Mat Smith (not the Dr Who actor, we presume as he'd have been able to travel back in time and tell us about the Galaxy S4 and 5) admitted that the Galaxy S3 “is a good-looking phone, with an impressive high definition Super AMOLED screen and a processor that looks likely to spar for top spot among Android devices”.

However, he felt that Samsung “hadn't responded to the recent trend for stand-out build and materials and this new flagship feels a lot like all its older relatives”.

“It's no doubt this lack of wow-factor hardware that has led Sammy to emphasize software progress instead.

“Glacial hardware design progress aside, if Samsung manages to get these new features polished up and working flawlessly, the company might well have another bestseller.”

S3 "Best Android phone yet"

Gareth Beavis’ verdict on the new phone was full of praise: “The Samsung Galaxy S3 has all the hallmarks of the best Android phone yet. Samsung’s decision to focus on services and interaction as much as design will be the area that makes or breaks the Galaxy S3 – and if they all work as intended, the rest of the competition will really have to work to catch up.”

S3 "No wow factor"

Seth Barton didn’t take to the S3’s design, finding it “ a very plastic phone”.

“The bendy, wafer-thin piece of plastic that you almost peel off the rear doesn't shout next-gen handset at us. It simply doesn't quite have the wow factor that some other recent handset have had. In short, we expected more.”

S3 "Powerhouse"

Rik Henderson thinks that the S3 is going to worry the iPhone execs at Apple: “Samsung has created a powerhouse of a smartphone, one that can truly make claims to being a portable computer in your pocket. We've seen enough to know that iPhone 4S fans will be sick with envy.”

S3 "Impossibly slim"

Luke Westaway’s first impressions of the Galaxy S3 was that the phone “brings a gorgeous 4.8-inch 720p display, quad-core processor and 8-megapixel camera, all crammed into a good-looking, impossibly slim and light casing. At this point we have few concerns, and this smart phone looks set to reproduce the Galaxy S2's success.”

S3 "Almost hollow"

The excellently named Vlad Savov felt that the S3 wasn’t heavy enough: “The main takeaway when you first pick up the Galaxy S III is that it's surprisingly light. It weighs over 130 grams, so it isn't that much of a featherweight, but the sensation of holding it is one of weightlessness. It almost feels hollow. We're not huge fans of this, we appreciate a bit more of a reassuring heft.”

S3 "Drain"

Just one letter in the alphabet away from the S3 T3 said “there's no denying that the S3 is a powerful phone that could well be a contender for the Best Android Phone crown.”

However, it wasn’t so convinced about the software: “Some will see the new social, voice and notification features as being compelling reasons to buy the phone. Some will see them as an unnecessary drain on the battery and will spend their first few hours with the phone deciding which of the features todeactivate first.”